Social Question

So, what was your day like?

I’m able to positively confirm that the bumper stickers are correct. A bad day sailing beats a good day at work. I was having a good day at work! And I chucked it at noon (the day too fine to waste indoors, even on ‘good’ work) to have an awful day sailing. (More detail below.)

49 Answers

I’m giving you fair warning that this could be a lengthy status update. [How Facebook expects one to post a sailing-related status update in 420 characters or less is absurd.] This has been in the composition stage for most of the afternoon and evening, and a lot of it was composed while underwater (while I should have been on a deck), soaking wet (while I should have been moderately dry) and while swallowing lake water (while I would rather have been drinking almost anything else, or even breathing would have been preferable)—and all of that while I should have been working. It’s sailing-related, so if you’re not willing to bear with me here, you may bear off (that’s sailor talk right there), and no one will mind—or even notice.

Well, about that working and sailing thing: I’m able to positively confirm that the bumper stickers are correct. A bad day sailing beats a good day at work. I was having a good day at work! And I chucked it at noon (the day too fine to waste indoors, even on ‘good’ work) to have an awful day sailing.

What a great day! I’m drained. By which I mean “exhausted”, “spent”, “wiped out” ... but not quite “dry”; I think I’m still sort of waterlogged.

I’m a good sailor, okay? At least a halfway decent one. I’m not going to count the capsize before I got the boat fully in the water. I wasn’t “sailing” at that point; I wasn’t even in the boat. No, that doesn’t count. The three on the water, okay, those count. The accidental one upon landing to retrieve the boat was more like the one that didn’t count, so I’m not going to count that one, either. And the final one, where I deliberately pulled the boat over (I did it on purpose! Witnesses can confirm!) was simply to take the rig off the boat. I never could have managed it, with the wind being what it was, to take the rig off by “picking it out” of the hull the way the designers intended. Capsizing to grab the mast at the balance point and pull it out laterally was my own stroke of genius. Otherwise I’d still be standing on the beach laughing at the sheer thought of pulling out that rig and being able to hold it upright. And waiting for the wind to die down. (Sailors everywhere ponder the mystery of why the wind increases as soon as you decide to beach and land the boat. How does it know?)

So, if you were counting, you counted three capsizes. If you counted higher, I need to remind you that those others don’t count. (Speaking of capsizing at the beach, by the way, I’ve come to the realization that this boat is like my own personal Portrait of Dorian Gray. I think every nick in the daggerboard, gouge, scuff, scrape and scratch on the hull and grass and bloodstain on the sail (I’m still trying to figure out the blood thing) is making me younger. Tireder, but younger.

The dry suit top worked pretty well. I still haven’t had to actually inflate the life jacket yet, and I’ve been finding more shallows in Webster Lake than I knew existed, even after nearly 50 years of sailing there. I also found out that a Laser can pirouette on its daggerboard if you bottom it on a windy day, then flip and try to turn turtle in less than 3 feet of water. Except for the fact that it didn’t really stick the landing, it could have been a medal-worthy gymnastics event. And when that happens less than 20 feet from shore in a strong, fluky and gusting onshore wind, getting upright, underway, and getting the board down enough to beat to windward can be… a challenge.

Surprisingly, even though the wind was nearly knock-down strong, and I spent more time sailing with the end of the boom in the water than I have in my life… I never got knocked down. All of my capsizes were… backwards. “Holey Aeolus, Batman! There’s holes in the wind!” I think I need to hike out on a bungee, so that I can get assistance getting back to the hull in time to prevent that backwards capsize.

I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.

I hope no one got video.

I hope my aches and pains go away, and the gear dries out a little, so that maybe I can do it again tomorrow.

I’m thinking of a new name for the boat: “Bloodied & Bowed, Still Beating Upwind”. Maybe “Myrmidon”? Probably “Harpy”. That’s the most apt so far.

What.A.Great.Day. And frostbiting season starts in a month. I think I need more practice. (Read: “more days off from work”.)

Pretty good. I’m fairly sure I bombed my math test (although, I always think I bombed math tests). But my sister was down from her college town on the other side of the state today, so we hung out and got food. Plus, she drove me to and from school, so I didn’t have to pay for parking!

Did my volunteer work at free geek. Had pizza and beer. Tried to get the computer I just bought working and failed. Worked on some websites and then decided to call it a day and drink more. Surprisingly productive.

My days are always full of normal grind and a bit of good fun. I work hard to make sure that something fun happens every day. I have my annual River Clean Up event this Saturday and today I was able to secure discount coupons from Gander Mountain and free Ice Cream Sundaes coupons from the local Ice Cream Parlor for all the kids that are attending the event and doing that made me feel like a million bucks!

@Cruiser anyone who’s cleaning up a river is tops in my book. When you get around to Webster Lake, there’s a shoal off of Point Breeze that I could suggest removing some rocks from. I’ll even donate part of my back yard for a dump zone.

@CyanoticWasp yep. absolutely intentional. Well from me anyhow. He’s the ex because I caught him lying. Then about the time I considered just having sex a few times but not taking him back (I asked Fluther opinions about that one) I found out he’d been cheating. So no. He just doesn’t get it.

@CyanoticWasp – I’ll go sailing with you any day. It’s always kind of been a dream of mine to learn how to sail. Yes, even though I’m a sucky swimmer.

Today was okay. The little man is full of personality these days, that’s for sure. I managed to get a good amount of work done on his Halloween costume (Conan the Barbarian) during naptime, and other than that, pretty much took it easy. Made some pretty darn good teriyaki and ginger stir-fry for dinner. I’m getting better at this Asian food thing. I still suck at dumplings, though. I think I need hands-on-training for that.

@CyanoticWasp It’s more the way that the professor has structured the tests that bugs me. 500 points possible in the class, 4 tests, each worth 125 points each. This test had 15 questions. Which means that if all the other tests are the same number, I can miss about 6 questions, ever, before loosing a full letter grade.

It started out good. It was a nice day, I had breakfast and did some dancing by myself before I went to work. I felt strung out, though, for about 5 hours and that was shitty, especially because there was no reason for me to feel like I had just drank 20 cups of super strong coffee…when my boyfriend got home from work we did a bit of shopping and then went to the farmers market. Then, at 8, we came home, I wanted to have sex but he was too tired. And that was when I was reminded that I was dating a 70 year old trapped in a 25 year olds body and I became sad, like I do most nights.

My day sucked as I went foe an interview that was already earmearcked for some one else who had been doing the job as a temp. Tomorrow will be better and I have my health, my children and my self respect. We will be just dine.

@deni outrageous, but did you tell him that? I find through experience that your type of relationship could be doomed. If sex isn’t so important to both people, then ok. But that doesn’t sound like the case.

Sounds awful too. So May, huh? I hope things change for you. I lived in a relationship like that for a few months, and it wreaked havoc on my self-esteem. So I left it. But I had no end in sight like you seem to. Good luck to you.

@Seek_Kolinahr good thing you didn’t pick today, though… lol. It really was wild, and very wet—even more so than usual for me, and I typically sail “wet” anyway. Sounds like you had a good day right where you were.

It was alright. I grudgingly woke up at 8:30, got ready, went to my Intro to Modern Philosophy class, had my mind blown by Spinoza, went to my 20th Century US History class, learned about how fucked up the year 1919 was, had two hours of down time where I jerked off did homework and fluthered, went to my Modern Critiques of Religion class and hoped to god the professor wouldn’t ask me any more dumb questions about God being a triangle, came back to my suite, took a two hour nap, woke up, went to Olive Garden with my grandparents, came back, sat around with my friends, ate cake, played Battlefield Bad Company 2, and then it was now.

It was decent. Woke up at 8something, ate, made coffee, and did morning stuff. Left for school. I was running late when I got there so I had to park on the street. Parallel parked like a pro but was so close to the curb I couldn’t open my door. Adjusted. Was half way down the street to my building when I realized I left my coffee on top of my car. Retrieved it. 15 minutes late to Marine Biology. Had an hour between classes so I went to my favorite cafe in the world, Brew’d Awakening. Got a cafe mocha and people watched. Went to my second class, French. After school I stopped my grandparents to get cooked for. Did some crosswords with my grandma. Got my hair trimmed by my aunt. Took a nap. Chased cats around. Came home and talked to some of my favorite people in the Fluther chat. And now I should be doing readings for history and writing up a short paper.

I woke up, fed the dogs, walked the dogs, picked up a squirrel for breakfast while walking the dogs. I had breakfast and did housework. I showed the utilities locator guy where we would be digging this weekend. I ordered appliances for the new house. Then I went to work.